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In Amos, the prophet mentions the deity Kiyyun, who is Rephan in the Greek Septuagint translation. In Acts, Stephen quotes the Greek name and places the exile beyond Babylon instead of Damascus, likely as code for Rome.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Amos 5:26
Hebrew Bible
25 You did not bring me sacrifices and grain offerings during the 40 years you spent in the wilderness, family of Israel. 26 You will pick up your images of Sikkuth, your king, and Kiyyun, your star god, which you made for yourselves, 27 and I will drive you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord. He is called the God of Heaven’s Armies.
Date: 600–501 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Amos 5:26
Septuagint
25 Have you offered to me victims and sacrifices, house of Israel, forty years in the wilderness? 26 Yes, you took up the tabernacle of Molech, and the star of your god Rephan, the images of them which you made for yourselves. 27 And I will carry you away beyond Damascus, says the Lord, the Almighty God is his name.
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Acts 7:43
New Testament
42 But God turned away from them and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘It was not to me that you offered slain animals and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, was it, house of Israel? 43 But you took along the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of the god Rephan, the images you made to worship, but I will deport you beyond Babylon.’ 44 Our ancestors had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as God who spoke to Moses ordered him to make it according to the design he had seen.
Date: 70–90 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Kaiwan occurs under the form Kiyyün in Amos 5:26. after Sikküt (Sakkuth). The Masoretic vocalization is that for idols (Abominations). The real pronunciation must have been Kaiwän, the name of the planet Saturn. Both go back to the Babylonian name for Saturn, Kajamänu (the Steady One). The Hebrew text used by the Septuagint was already corrupted in having an initial r instead of k resulting in Rayphan; in Acts 7:43 also spelled Rompha ..."
Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and and Pieter W. van der Horst, eds., Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, 2nd extensively rev. ed. (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 478.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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